Mapping Ecosystem Services Bundles for Spatial Planning with the AHP Technique: A Case Study in Tuscany (Italy)

Massimo Rovai (), Tommaso Trinchetti, Francesco Monacci and Maria Andreoli
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Massimo Rovai: Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering (DICI), University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Tommaso Trinchetti: Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-Environmental Sciences (DAFE), University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Francesco Monacci: Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-Environmental Sciences (DAFE), University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Maria Andreoli: Independent Researcher, 56124 Pisa, Italy

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-21

Abstract: Agricultural and forest ecosystems provide multiple ecosystem services (ESs) fundamental to the well-being and quality of life of citizens. However, in the European context, these ecosystems are often threatened by processes of urban development, around cities, or abandonment, in mountainous or remote areas. Faced with the need for solutions oriented towards greater sustainability and resilience of socio-ecological systems, planning should contribute to rebuilding more integrated and mutually beneficial relationships between urban and rural areas, ensuring the effective production of multiple ESs. The regulation and management of ESs are complex and require scientifically sound and widely understandable policies and governance models, based on detailed assessment methods. This paper proposes a method for mapping and bundling the supply of five ESs produced in agricultural and forest areas, based on the processing of open source territorial data through the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and tailored for the Tuscany region (Italy). The method integrates the land use and land cover map with other data to obtain a comprehensive ESs assessment, and then uses cluster analysis to identify bundles of ESs. Based on a first trial, the method seems to show high potentialities as a Decision Support System to promote innovative governance models for ES management.

Keywords: ecosystem services mapping; AHP; rural areas; Tuscany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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